Chapter 451: Ambushed from two sides

It had been a day since the group had found the first Guardian sight and they had already gotten on the move to try to find the next one. Although they never got to see what the guardian at the area looked like, the amount of power and aura it exuded while only a small part of the barrier was opened for them to look through was staggering. Joshua hadn't felt that kind of presence from any of the beast he had met in the past that he felt he actually stood a chance against in a fight. The beast might have been powerful, but it was still within the range in which Joshua was willing to take on with their current group, especially if they could get everyone up into the eighties levels wise. A few weeks training in the prairie would quickly solve that dilemma without much trouble even if they didn't go to the more dangerous areas or to the dungeon.

It had already been a week of them exploring the prairie up to this point so Joshua didn't want the expedition to go on for too long. The group had gotten enough supplies for a couple of weeks or so and there were several things they would have to handle regarding their guilds when they got back from the expedition so they didn't want to spend too much time exploring the prairie. They definitely didn't have enough time to find all of the guardian sites within the next week so Joshua just planned on going as far as they could within that time span. After all they would have to consolidate all of the levels they gained from the expedition before they jumped into challenging such powerful creatures.

After leaving the guardian site it didn't take long for the terrain of the area to turn back to the regular tall grass and open fields with hills at every corner that you would expect from a prairie. They did get in a couple of fights against some coyotes and a vulture that tried to steal one of the coyote bodies the moment the fight had come to an end, but outside of that they had spent most of the previous day riding on the ferret express throughout the prairie at a fast pace. At night they rested, but they'd always be up early in the morning so they could get a move on and explore as much as possible.

The prairie was so large that in a full day of travel they had only covered enough area in which they could see a couple of separate herds of elk that were grazing in the shorter grass. Joshua was certain that it might take the rest of the week just trying to find the next guardian site since there were four of them and they were likely to be evenly spread out all around the outskirts of the prairie. It had taken nearly a week to find the first one so Joshua wasn't going to get his hopes up and think that the group would be able to easily find the next one within a short period of time.

For the day the group hadn't come across anything that stood out to anyone as they watched their surroundings while riding on Momo's back. Every few hours they would get down from Momo to go on foot for a while so the giant ferret could catch a short break. Although she was fast and agile she did end up wasting a lot of stamina whenever she had to flee from a large group of bobcats or a pack of coyote that was much larger than Joshua was willing to deal with at the time. So whenever they got to safer areas Joshua was sure to give Lilly's companion a break. It was after one of those breaks when they had all gotten back up onto Momo's back that Joshua started to feel a sense of danger in the area up ahead.

Quickly spreading his aura sense out so that he could feel out what was going on Joshua was surprised to find out that he couldn't find anything. The only thing he found with his aura sense was a stray prairie dog that was digging into the ground in the open field nearby and Joshua knew that wasn't what was triggering the feeling he was having.

While he was trying to figure out what could possibly be causing this feeling he suddenly felt three more beast enter the range of his aura sense from behind. It was a group of three bobcats that he had Momo run from earlier since they were in the tall grass and that wasn't a good location to fight. These bobcats were a lot more persistent than any others they had come across while exploring the prairie. It was clear to Joshua that they were likely starved for food with how eagerly they kept chasing a ferret that had left them in the dust a long time ago. They followed Momo's sent all the way up to the point where Joshua's group had stopped to take a rest and they seemed locked in on them as they rushed in their direction.

"Everyone prepare for a battle. Those bobcats are still following us." Joshua said out loud as everyone got in formation to fight against the approaching bobcats that they could now see in the distance as they charged through the open field at top speed after rushing out of the tall grass that was behind the group. "Lilly go ahead and put Momo away, were going to need your stronger beast companions for this fight."

Lilly nodded as she brought out Titus, Tank, and Cinder while exchanging Momo for Flutter who came out and boosted the entire group. The tanks all stood out front with Abigail staying back to protect the back line in case the bobcats leaped over them and tried to attack from another angle. They might be starved, but that didn't mean they were stupid. They had all already seen some of the cunning ways the bobcats tended to manipulate different situations and they didn't want to put themselves in a bad situation just because they were underestimating their opponents.

With everyone ready for the oncoming bobcats with Titus out front along with Cinder Joshua surprised the rest of the group by moving to the back of the formation. In their current position they had turned their backs towards where the earlier since of danger had come from and Joshua didn't like the idea of being put in that situation. So he took up position at the back of the formation just in case anything tried to attack the group from behind during the fight. Tank would fill his role at the front of the group as the one to take on the starting charge of the bobcats. The blood thirsty cats were already honing in on Tank and Titus anyways as they started leaping off the ground and through the air so that they would have an advantage in the upcoming clash.

Tank immediately started creating several bubble traps in front of the group so that the bobcats would have to dodge around them. Cinder on the other hand was shooting flaming spears towards the incoming bobcats forcing them to dodge them and giving Joshua's group to prepare more for the upcoming fight. Titus seemed to be up to something as well as his hands were placed on the ground as vines covered his body in armor to defend against the bobcats that were likely to target him right away. What surprised Joshua this time was the fact that a bunch roots seemed to form together into this giant bat like weapon for Titus that had thorn shaped spikes all alongside it as he ripped it from the ground.

While the bubble traps and the fire spears held off the bobcats for a moment Katsumi quickly put up a barrier to protect the back line of the group while all of the mages seemed to be concentrating on preparing powerful spells to take the bobcats out of the air as quickly as possible. At the moment Natalie and Aito were the only ones going on the attack as they fired bullets and arrows that slammed into the bobcats and slowed them down even more.

The explosive power behind Aito's shots were strong enough to stun the bobcats for a moment allowing Cinders fire spears to hit them and do even more damage. Natalie's arrows were even more precise as she controlled them through the air and forced the bombs she had planted on them to explode right next to the bobcats that tried to avoid them. The explosions would often trigger the nearby bubbles to explode as well causing the bobcats to get caught up in the chain of explosions. The bobcat that was at the head of the group already had some glaring injuries before it was able to reach the group, but it didn't slow down as it charged down at Titus with its claws out and its mouth open wide preparing to rip into Titus's neck from the side.

Titus quickly transferred his club over to his other hand and raised his arm up to block the attack by the large bobcat. Even if Titus were to try to dodge the attack he would most likely still end up taking some damage from a glancing strike from the bobcat's claws, but by taking the attack head on Titus was able to put the bobcat exactly where he wanted it. The large beast's mouth crunched down on Titus's arm but the Vine armor relegated what would have been a major injury into a slight annoying pain. It tried to claw through the armor as well, but in its current position it wasn't able to get much leverage.

The bobcat was stuck as Titus kept his arm up in the air so that the bobcat's feet weren't able to land on the ground and allow it to get a better position. Before it could use its ability to leap away Titus slammed its underbelly with the large thorn club that he held in his other hand causing the bobcat to shriek in pain before he twisted his arm and put the bobcat off balance while slamming it into the ground. Before it could get up and try to retaliate Cinder was already on it pinning it down and trying to go for the kill.

The other two bobcats went in for the attack as they charged down to join the madness, but it wasn't the fighting that was happening in front of him that had gained Joshua's attention. Instead it was the sudden spike in danger that he sensed coming from behind him that told Joshua to turn around and face whatever was trying to blind side him and the back line that was focused on using their spells.